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Criminal Law: Child Molestation-‘Ritual or Ceremony’-Multiple Abusers
Staff Report//May 23, 2019//
Where a defendant challenged his conviction for class A first-degree child molestation, the defendant was convicted under Section 566.067, which specified that the molestation was part of a “ritual or ceremony” defined as an act or series of acts performed by two or more people, the judgment is reversed and remanded because the defendant conducted the abuse alone, and the victim could not be a participant in her own abuse as argued by the state, so the conviction is reversed and remanded for the entry of a conviction on the lesser-included offense of class B felony child molestation in the first degree.
Judgment is reversed and remanded.
State v. Morton (MLW No. 73208/Case No. SD35487 – 7 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Francis Jr., J.) Appealed from circuit court, Camden County, Hayden, J.
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